It isn’t every day that a family has their cell phone hijacked, much less three but that’s exactly what’s happening in the town of Fircrest, Washington. The families have been receiving death threats, phones that turn themselves on and off and text messages at all hours of the day and night.

They have tried changing phones, carriers and numbers but the threats keep on coming and no law enforcement agency has been able to get to the bottom of it. The four month escapade is no closer to an end.

Their cell phone company has told them what they call the “alleged” stalkers are doing is a near impossibility, especially since the phones have been swapped out and numbers changed. The bill can now reach upwards of $1,000 per month which I dearly hope the company is willing to waive, for now.

Though, it is far from impossible. Technology in cell phones allow for remote monitoring of calls whether the phone is on or off but the battery must be installed. And the GPS locator feature of every phone sold these days can pinpoint a phone to within a few feet.

James M. Atkinson, an expert in counterintelligence as asked what he thought of the situation by The News Tribune. “You do not have to have a strong technical background for someone to do this,” he said. “They probably have a technically gifted kid who probably is in their neighborhood.”

So that’s what? Basically every teenager and 20-something living in the area is now a suspect.

The messages are left in text form, voice mail form and more recently on the families’ home phones. The stalkers also know what the family is doing and wearing, when the adults leave the house and their plans for the day.

If it was one family, it would be bad enough but the threats are starting to expand to their friends and neighbors, the police are baffled, save for one clue that doesn’t make any sense.

All the threatening calls can be traced back to one phone belonging to Courtney Kuyendall. She claims not to know who the stalkers are or what they want but police consider her to be “suspicious.” She thinks a man has been following her around at school that was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and had a beard.

Courtney would like very much to know why police are suspicious of her, saying, “Why would I do that to people I care about? Why would I harass my own family?” A valid question, isn’t the rule of the land to now accuse victims when all other options have been exhausted?

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Entry was posted on Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 5:53 am under Cell phones, Legal, Security, Technology, Uncategorized.

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.
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